Between 2002 and 2012, there were 116 victims of human trafficking recorded in Croatia and in most cases they were sexually abused or victims of forced labour, was said during a presentation of the EUR 192,000 twinning project called "Identification and Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking", in the Croatian parliament on Thursday
Of these 116 victims of this global problem, 58 were Croatian citizens and in most cases were abused within Croatian borders and to a lesser extent in Italy and Spain, the director of the government's Office for Human and Ethnic Minorities Rights, Branko Socanac told reporters.
Foreign victims over the past four years included citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in most cases however some victims were Romanians, Bulgarians and Moldavians.
Last year there were 11 cases of victims of human trafficking recorded.
A representative of the European Union Delegation to Croatia Luigi Barile believes that these figures are probably much higher in reality and hopes that the project will facilitate efficient identification of victims but perpetrators too.
The six month project of identifying victims is being financed within the EU IPA 2010 project for Croatia with the aim of strengthening capacities to combat human trafficking and to investigate the connections between forced prostitution, forced labour and human trafficking.
The project will be implemented by the Office for Human and Ethnic Minorities Rights and the Romanian human trafficking agency.
Human trafficking is one of the cruelest examples of human rights violations and has been recognised as a growing problem in the fight against international organised crime. Targets are usually women and young girls who are sold for sexual purposes but more and more victims are used for forced labour.
